Smile for the camera, Honey!
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Playing with the camera again
Obviously, I've discovered the Macro setting on my Canon point-and-shoot camera.
Monday, July 21, 2008
And, rounding out our weekend recap...
We spent time this past Sunday at the Country Fest at the Gibb's Pioneer Museum/Homestead.
Audrey got to visit her buddy, Henry, the blind horse.
I took some photos of all the prairie flora:
And, fun was had elsewhere on the farm:
Training in traditions
This past Friday, we got to meet up with Ken's cousin, Tracy, who's in town on business for two weeks.
She schooled Audrey in the Marsh photo tradition:
Balloons are the best
This past Saturday, we attended the birthday party of a 2-year-old friend of Audrey's, Connor.
I was excited, because I got to put her in this cute dress.
Ken was excited about birthday cake and hanging out with all the babies there (not).
And, Audrey was excited about, well, you'll see...
I was excited, because I got to put her in this cute dress.
Ken was excited about birthday cake and hanging out with all the babies there (not).
And, Audrey was excited about, well, you'll see...
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Away from home base
Alright, this is a test. I'm at a local coffee shop with Ken's laptop - which is SSLLOOWWW. But, it's portable. I'm following up on multiple suggestions from folks to get myself outfitted to get out of the house three days a week to do some work-stuff. There's the other blog I started; plus, I just got another consulting gig with another writer-director. Yay!
Won't be able to post photos from my coffee shop days, but I can always do that at home. I know, I know, we need to take more photos. :)
Tootles for now.
Won't be able to post photos from my coffee shop days, but I can always do that at home. I know, I know, we need to take more photos. :)
Tootles for now.
Wednesday, July 09, 2008
OMG! I'm fat!
Dear Readers,
Long story short, today I got weighed on this fancy thingamajiggie at the YWCA. It's a doomaflawgie that calculates body mass, body fat, skeletal weight, water weight, and a bunch of other whosiwhatsits that I didn't totally comprehend. But, I got this: it showed me in no uncertain terms that I need to lose some major weight (13 pounds)! I have too much fat, and that's bad for cholesterol, heart disease, blah, blah, blah. It also informed me that the magic number of calories for my body, height, age, etc. to maintain itself is 1320 calories. A day.
Damn, break out the carrot sticks.
Long story short, today I got weighed on this fancy thingamajiggie at the YWCA. It's a doomaflawgie that calculates body mass, body fat, skeletal weight, water weight, and a bunch of other whosiwhatsits that I didn't totally comprehend. But, I got this: it showed me in no uncertain terms that I need to lose some major weight (13 pounds)! I have too much fat, and that's bad for cholesterol, heart disease, blah, blah, blah. It also informed me that the magic number of calories for my body, height, age, etc. to maintain itself is 1320 calories. A day.
Damn, break out the carrot sticks.
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
Ken Checks In - July
Hello. It's been several months since I posted anything due to a poor mental state. Over April/May several issues came to a head for me: stress, depression, loneliness, money woes, job search woes, lack of sleep, bizarre/scary skin lesions on left hand and left eyelid, and severe blurry vision in left eye.
After visiting several doctors in mid May I learned that the water blisters and tiny red bumps on my hand were not due to a herpes infection (thank god!) but simply a severe reaction to overuse of hand sanitizers and harsh hand soaps (trying too hard to kill all the germs at my university job) - compounded by stress and depression. At its worst, my middle and ring fingers looked almost exactly like this photo of a herpes infection:
Yeah, you can bet I was freaking out for a few days waiting for the herpes test results to come back - worrying that I might infect Audrey, Lorie, or other areas of my own skin! I was afraid to touch anything and I felt like a leper!
The medical term for my skin condition is dyshidrotic eczema. My brothers might want to watch out for this since it could be hereditary. Treatment included applying tiny amounts of clobetasol propionate which thins the skin, liberal amounts of a super thick hand lotion called Aquaphor, and avoiding all soaps and shampoos except Burt's Bees baby shampoo. The first tiny red bumps appeared on my hand in January and it was only about a week ago that I could say this crap has completely disappeared! Yeah, that's about 6 months!!!
And the two bumps in my left eyelid turned out to be completely unrelated to my hand. During the herpes scare I thought I had infected my eye by sleeping on my stomach and resting my head on my hand! [All these herpes thoughts were put into my head by a well meaning pharmacist at the local grocery store. His story about his father having permanent eye damage due to herpes scared me into my first doctor appointment.] But the eyelid bumps were just common cysts caused by a common bacteria infection and the best treatment for that is frequent warm wet compresses. Now the cysts are almost completely gone and my vision has vastly improved. The blurry vision was due to pressure from the bumps distorting the shape of my eyeball.
It's amazing how out of whack your body can get due to stress and depression.
First of all I owe a HUGE debt of gratitude to my parents for all their love and support. Their visit in early May was instrumental in getting me out of my deepest funk. And they bought us bikes which was just amazingly fantastic! I've already put well over 275 miles on mine. I'll have to do a post just on how bike friendly the Twin Cities are!
To beat the loneliness I've joined several Meetup groups to make new friends and do fun activities (while networking to find employment). It's working!
I continue my job search and there has been a slight increase in activity lately. I recently had a very helpful coaching session with a good friend, and today I had a great interview at Eaton Corporation. Please don't tell me they're evil because I really liked the people and I really want that job! Besides, it's only a 30 day contract, but it could lead to a permanent position. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Who wouldn't hire this fine looking man?
When we started getting summer weather a few weeks ago I was bitten by the "healthy living" bug. I started eating smaller healthier meals (including stuff from our own garden) and started working out, swimming, and jogging on top of major biking, and I had already stopped drinking alcohol in mid May. I've already lost a solid 5 pounds in the last two weeks and I feel so much better! I can't say I smell very good a lot of the time, but I feel great!
To reward you for reading this far, here's a viddy of Audrey expressing my newfound happiness through interpretive tap:
Well, that's about all I have to say to catch you up on my favorite topic: ME.
Thankfully everything has been improving since May!
After visiting several doctors in mid May I learned that the water blisters and tiny red bumps on my hand were not due to a herpes infection (thank god!) but simply a severe reaction to overuse of hand sanitizers and harsh hand soaps (trying too hard to kill all the germs at my university job) - compounded by stress and depression. At its worst, my middle and ring fingers looked almost exactly like this photo of a herpes infection:
Yeah, you can bet I was freaking out for a few days waiting for the herpes test results to come back - worrying that I might infect Audrey, Lorie, or other areas of my own skin! I was afraid to touch anything and I felt like a leper!
The medical term for my skin condition is dyshidrotic eczema. My brothers might want to watch out for this since it could be hereditary. Treatment included applying tiny amounts of clobetasol propionate which thins the skin, liberal amounts of a super thick hand lotion called Aquaphor, and avoiding all soaps and shampoos except Burt's Bees baby shampoo. The first tiny red bumps appeared on my hand in January and it was only about a week ago that I could say this crap has completely disappeared! Yeah, that's about 6 months!!!
And the two bumps in my left eyelid turned out to be completely unrelated to my hand. During the herpes scare I thought I had infected my eye by sleeping on my stomach and resting my head on my hand! [All these herpes thoughts were put into my head by a well meaning pharmacist at the local grocery store. His story about his father having permanent eye damage due to herpes scared me into my first doctor appointment.] But the eyelid bumps were just common cysts caused by a common bacteria infection and the best treatment for that is frequent warm wet compresses. Now the cysts are almost completely gone and my vision has vastly improved. The blurry vision was due to pressure from the bumps distorting the shape of my eyeball.
It's amazing how out of whack your body can get due to stress and depression.
Positive Changes
First of all I owe a HUGE debt of gratitude to my parents for all their love and support. Their visit in early May was instrumental in getting me out of my deepest funk. And they bought us bikes which was just amazingly fantastic! I've already put well over 275 miles on mine. I'll have to do a post just on how bike friendly the Twin Cities are!
To beat the loneliness I've joined several Meetup groups to make new friends and do fun activities (while networking to find employment). It's working!
I continue my job search and there has been a slight increase in activity lately. I recently had a very helpful coaching session with a good friend, and today I had a great interview at Eaton Corporation. Please don't tell me they're evil because I really liked the people and I really want that job! Besides, it's only a 30 day contract, but it could lead to a permanent position. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Who wouldn't hire this fine looking man?
When we started getting summer weather a few weeks ago I was bitten by the "healthy living" bug. I started eating smaller healthier meals (including stuff from our own garden) and started working out, swimming, and jogging on top of major biking, and I had already stopped drinking alcohol in mid May. I've already lost a solid 5 pounds in the last two weeks and I feel so much better! I can't say I smell very good a lot of the time, but I feel great!
To reward you for reading this far, here's a viddy of Audrey expressing my newfound happiness through interpretive tap:
Well, that's about all I have to say to catch you up on my favorite topic: ME.
Friday, July 04, 2008
Toddler Ode to Esther Williams
I'm in! Triumph! I ain't afraid of no stinkin' wading pool. Filming may begin now.Then again... The water's COLD!
Cue music for the dance scene! And, where are all the background swimmers with tutus?? Get them out here now!
Already surrounded by boys, to Ken's chagrin.
We're ready for our close-ups!
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